USA's Statue of Liberty inspired by Arab woman

The symbol of democracy was designed by sculptor Frederic Auguste Bartholdi, who had keen interest in Egyptian culture after his travel to the Arab lands in 18th century

New York: The Statue of Liberty was inspired by a project representing an Arab woman guarding the Suez Canal, researchers said.

French sculptor Frederic Auguste Bartholdi, who travelled to Egypt in 1855-1856, developed there a “passion for large-scale public monuments,” said the US National Park Service.

When the Egyptian government sought proposals in 1869 to build a lighthouse for the Suez Canal, Bartholdi designed a huge statue of a robed woman holding a torch. The sculpture originally took “form of a veiled peasant woman,” a researcher said.

Bartholdi’s second chance came when French historian Edouard de Laboulaye originated the idea of a monument presented by the French people to the US. In 1870, Bartholdi began designing the statue based on his previous design. It was inaugurated in 1886.